All That Glitters
by Elia FireRing
Summary: When Ponyo gets tangled in the world of the Akatsuki she realizes that 'All that glitters is not gold' and that people are not always what they seem as she begins an her apprenticeship. Hopefully I get lots of Kisame in here. Rated T just in case.
1. The Thunderstorm

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto like Kishimoto does, so don't be telling people I do. Ponyo is my character (inspired by Myazaki's Ponyo) however, all other characters associated with the anime Naruto are not mine, I'm just borrowing them. Just so you know.

If you bother reading this, then it'd be appreciated if you bother reviewing, but I'm just glad if people read it.

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'words go here' - this means that some one is thinking something

"words also go here"- and this means that some one is saying something

PLEASE DON'T GET THESE CONFUSED THROUGHOUT YOUR READING OF MY STORIES!

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The large gray-blue man sat just outside the cave entrance, rolling out long lengths of white bandage between his abnormally-colored long fingers. Carefully he bent over a large object on his lap and began to securely wrap it with the bandages.

Ponyo bit her bottom lip in excitement, peering through the green and pricking bush, actually witnessing one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist tending to his sword.

She could have rushed out and hugged him . . . but then the logical part in her mind reminded her that that was a previous member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist . . . and he was tending to his blade . . . .

Ponyo slowly tore herself away from the incredible sight, careful to not rustle the bush as she drew back. The sitting man disappeared in the branches, and keeping his image fresh in her mind, she squated down on the ground and dug her hand into her brown burlap bag on the dirt beside her. She drew out her spiraled notebook and it caught slightly on the material, so Ponyo had to twist the metal spiral a bit to retrieve her notebook from the bag. Things like that kind of annoyed her, the usual everyday things still happened even when she was spying on possibly the most dangerous man she ever would meet…you know, from a distance.

She took the pencil from out of her bag as well and quickly began to sketch the image still in her mind of Kisame Hoshigaki and his Samehada.

The lighting in the forested area was terrible as the sky turned a deeper shade of gray, but Ponyo was able to sketch the basics of the man and a bit of the background. She focused more on Samehada, his sword, though. If she was correct then Samehada shouldn't be hard to improve. . . but she'd need to take an up close look at it. Ponyo folded the notebook closed and stuffed it back into her bag with her pencil. She grabbed the bag's strap and put her head through it, hanging it on her opposite shoulder.

She readied herself with a deep breath, blowing the air and negativity from her lungs and forcing it past her lips.

She would finally be meeting Kisame Hoshigaki, the S-rank criminal wanted in the Land of Water for subversive macinations against the state and the murder of a general. Zabuza didn't really appear to like him much when Ponyo paid him to teach her some of his super secret Water Jutsu's, and while she really liked Zabuza's personality, Kisame was said to have an even greater power and strength than him.

And that was very respectable to someone like Ponyo.

Ponyo quickly patted her hair over to make sure her two side buns weren't frizzing in the growing humidity, she straightened the wrinkles from her silk blue-green shirt and stood up with ease.

Time to meet a role model.

Ponyo emerged from around the bush and stepped into the small clearing before the cave, but as she did she realized with a start that Kisame was no longer there. Ponyo slowly took a step forward, perhaps he had gone back into the cave when she wasn't looking? Great, now she'd have to find him in the back of a dark cave. . . that'd be just great for a first impression; he'd have her head off before she could even get out her name.

Ponyo neared the cave carefully, planning things out hurriedly in her mind of how to approach the situation. Suddenly a great _boom_ from overhead rumbled across the sky.

Ponyo looked up surprised at the gray clouds.

Cold steel prickled against her neck as a deep voice seemed to smirk at her from behind, "I think I shall enjoy killing you..."

Lightning flashed across the sky, whitening the whole area in the steady growing darkness of the thunderstorm. Ponyo wondered, off-handly, if she would even be alive to feel the wet rain in a few moments.

"Kisame Hoshigaki?"

The kunai against her throat remained steady, but the man hesitated for a moment before he spoke with a sort of smile in his voice, "You know me?"

"Yes sir, I've been tracking the whereabouts of certain members of the previous Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. . . it's an honor to actually meet you sir, the Monster of the Hidden Mist ." Ponyo noted the rush of the leaves in the trees around them as the wind began to pick up.

"…Hmph. " The kunai pressed a bit closer against her throat, "And why would you want to track _me_ down? What in the world could you want from _me_?"

Ponyo felt the first of the drizzle from above, her lips curled into a faint smile, "…An exchange."

Lightning flashed again and thunder boomed, shaking the ground, "…What kind of exchange?"

"Let me be your apprentice for a year, and I shall reward you with a great improvement to your sword, Samehada. As well as a few of my own inventions during the course of my apprenticeship," Ponyo offered as she slowly reached for her bag flap, "such as what I have here in my bag."

The cold kunai left her throat slowly, and she was free to show what it was she was to present to him from her bag. Ponyo rummaged through the bag a bit, still facing away from the blue beast. The thought unwilling flashed in her mind, as she felt her way around in the burlap bag, that she may have forgotten to take the scroll from her old campsite.

Her fingers brushed the familiar rolled up paper and ceased all doubts. She grabbed it quickly, remembering from her research that Kisame was not one to be kept waiting. How many seconds had passed? Ten, maybe twelve? Was that too much?

The drizzle came down with more frequency now, and Ponyo's forehead began to get wet and sticky, making her head feel cold and light. She turned around and faced him now, hand still in the bag.

Her eyes buldged out a bit.

Kisame was one tall and fierce looking monster-man, he had to be at least one hundred ninety centimeters. In the dark glow of the thunderstorm his skin looked inhumanly gray and only his glowing white and pointed teeth could distract one's eye from it. Yes, he smiled down at her, but it had about as much feeling in it as a skeleton's smile.

Ponyo felt intimidated, even after studying him from afar and from his past partners, she realized nothing could really prepare her for meeting him face to face not more than a few feet from her.

His Akatsuki cloak with floating red clouds against a pitch black background made him look bigger than he actually was, but that wasn't exactly a comfort. The cloak more hid his impressive figure than accentuated it, as Ponyo could tell from the cool breeze blowing the fabric from his legs and every now and then pressing the fabric closer to his true frame.

Lightning flashed again and Kisame's gray skin turned bright blue as his round shark-eyes lit up in an eerie glowing white.

Ponyo drew her hand out of the bag, the scroll held tightly in it, "This scroll took me a long time to make, and it is still unfinished, but once it is done it can give way to an unlimited amount of justsu" She tossed it cautiously to him, which was easily caught in his right hand, "I call it _The Handsign Alphabet_."

Kisame looked at it with the smirk still on his face, '_The Handsign Alphabet, _huh? Well…' He opened the scroll a bit to reveal a partially filled out and complicated looking chart, his beady eyes scanned it briefly, "Hmm…"

Heavy drops began to fall on top of Ponyo's wet red hair and silk-covered shoulders now, and she noticed with an internal cringe that the scroll also caught the heavy drops.

More thunder rolled over the area, and lightning lit it up again, but the bolt was thin and only a vaguely more detailed outline of the figure in front of her became visible; still blue, still tall, and seemingly rather comfortable in the increasing downpour.

Ponyo watched through drops of rain trickling down her face as Kisame rolled the scroll back up and stored it temporarily under the cloak sleeve with his hand. He stood watching her for a moment, the rain beginning to thoroughly soak them both now as more thunder rumbled and lightning flashed twice at a distance.

A gust of wind picked up, sending a sheet of captured rain on some trees straight onto Ponyo, leaving nothing on her person in question of being dry, but she continued to stand there unmoving, unblinking. Ponyo couldn't tell from the shadows in Kisame's eyes and around his strongly chisled face if he too did not blink, but maybe the shark-man did not have eyelids?

"…Who are you?" Kisame asked with an odd sort of humorous curiosity.

"Ponyo." She replied.

Kisame considered her, "Heh heh heh…not much of an introduction. So… you want to be my apprentice, huh?"

Ponyo bowed, some extra drops falling from her hair, "Yes." She remained bent over, bowing, and the water streaked right into her eyes, making her continuously blink as she stared at the wet grass before her feet.

"Hmm… I'm not exactly taking on apprentices at this time, and seeing how you have been tracking me, I can't let you just leave…heh heh heh." Kisame chuckled as his voice gained a new note of amusement.

Ponyo's waterlogged eyes quickly darted around the grass as she hurriedly thought to save her life, "…You have always been a role-model to me, Master Kisame."

To this he said nothing, but in her mind Ponyo could see the faint outline of his pointy-toothed smirk, "And I cannot let the honor of being your apprentice slip away from me so easily…in tracking you I have noticed that you do not stay in one spot very long, and you already have a partner that travels with you, and so it can only be assumed that you must work together for someone else. If your current occupation is what keeps you from having an apprentice, then perhaps, I could speak to your boss?"

To this she received a hearty laugh, "…Now _that's_an interesting idea! Heh heh heh…"

Ponyo let the water accumulate near her eyes now without annoyance, her mind thinking too fast now to even bother with the surrounding thunderstorm, "Do we have a deal then? Will you bring me to your boss?"

"…You know what," Kisame replied after a moment, "I think I will, but only because I'm in such a good mood, kid. Normally I wouldn't give two cents worth to a polywog like you…but I could use the company, what with my partner up and disappearing on me…"

Ponyo looked up then, her eyes round and wonderous, he was really going to take her! Ever since Zabuza uttered his name in such contempt she had always wanted to meet him, and now, she was so close to becoming his apprentice…

But as Ponyo took in the sight of the monster-man, she also caught sight of something else in the corner of her eye.

Lightning flashed from a distance, illuminating the object but not identifying it.

It was a black figure near the outline of the clearing a few yards away, maybe a person or maybe just the shadow of a tree or bush. Ponyo never found out for a moment later something pounded against the back of her neck, and as thunder roared above her, the dark figure and everything else faded to blackness. Ponyo barely even felt the wet ground smashing up against the side of her face a moment later as the rain continued to steadily pour over her.


	2. Waking Up

Woo! I made another chapter, happy happy me.

Imma try my best not to turn this into a romance thingy, but sometimes these stories take on a life of their own… But Imma try.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any characters associated with it. If I did there would be more Akatsuki and Rock Lee, Sasuke wouldn't suck, Itachi would (spoiler) live, and pairings would be as follows: TenNeji, SasuSaku, NaruHina, Lee(well, I don't really know but he'd definitely have someone), TemaShika, KankuIno, Deida(and that one girl who works with her father at that Ichi ramen place), Itachi and mystery, and Me with Kisame :D

So…back to the story:

As Ponyo slowly began to wake the first thing she sensed was the cold, smooth cement hard up against her bruised cheek. She lay with her leg and an arm under her body, her lower half on it's side with her chest against the rather unfavorable cement. Her elbow and hip pressed far too heavily against the floor to be tolerable for much longer a time as her body dug them into the hard cement. Ponyo shifted slightly, careful not to betray herself to be awake, she faked a sleepy and dream-induced sigh.

She kept her eyes closed, trying to assess her surroundings as she took a mental inventory on her body's wellbeing. Other than being cold, uncomfortable, and having a sore face and shoulder from her fall, Ponyo felt better than one might expect to feel after being knocked out cold by an Akatsuki member of such incredible strength.

'Now…where exactly am I?' Ponyo's ear throbbed slightly as it was pressed against the cement, but besides the faint and pulsing sound of her heartbeat, it detected no other sound. Was cement a good conductor of noise? She knew that brick was supposed to be, but maybe cement was too. If it was, then she really was far from any moving person, or thing.

Slowly she opened her eyes, bits of dried mud flaked away from them and she had to blink several times 'Would it really have killed him to make sure I hadn't fallen FACE-first into the mud…?'.

Her eyelashes stuck together some, but through them she was able to see a blurring, orange light. With her mind becoming more conscious her eyes darted around until the lashes separated nearly completely from each other and she was able to stare at her rather grim surroundings.

Infront of her hung a burning torch, it's black chain connected to what appeared to be a brown rock wall.

Shadows danced around from the flame, and she could make out a small room, about the size of eight tatami mats.

Ponyo slowly moved her body to get her arm out from under it, and with both freed hands she lifted herself up some, wincing as her body reminded her that unfortunately there were no tatami mats there.

Twisting her head some she could make out a small cot on one side of the room, beside it was a small toilet hidden in shadow. Ponyo noted that there were no doors or windows.

She smirked some and got up a bit more, wincing as she did so.

Ponyo managed to crouch with her legs beneath her, her sandals making an odd stretching noise from lack of use. She scanned the area and glanced over at the torch again, taking note of the flickering flames.

As she brushed some dirt off of her face, the hard mud scratched her facial skin as her hands were not gentle as still regaining their finer motor functions. She made a face as she brushed, working as Kisame's apprentice would not be fun because as far as first impressions go he had not only let her land face-first in mud, but also, he simply dumped her on the floor when there was a cot right in the room.

But then again, she didn't want to be his apprentice because he was a thoughtful, gentleman-like creature.

Ponyo decided her face was fine enough and then proceded to crack her knuckles before making a handsign, 'Ninjutsu Release!'.

Suddenly, on the right side of the room, a door wavered into sight out of the rock wall.

Ponyo smiled slightly, 'Child's play'.

She got up slowly, her back and upper legs protesting in a very unappreciative way, as she made her way over to the door.

Ponyo starred at the door as she came slowly within a foot of it, her sandals scraping against the smooth floors, before she crouched down-ignoring the annoying body pains- and stared at the doorknob.

It was an older, classic, out-swinging American door, and it had a normal enough looking doorknob; old brass with swirling designs jutting from it, creating dark grooves from the shadows. Ponyo's eyes scanned the swirls carefully before she lifted her right hand up to her face and promptly stuck out her ring finger. She placed it on the doorknob, as she thought off-handly to herself, why it was that when you stuck up every other finger on your hand only that one came up, but if you stuck up the ring finger at least two others wanted to join it?

Why was that?

Ponyo sent a jolt of chakra from deep within her chest to her chosen finger, she forced the chakra to crawl out and worm it's way over the brass swirls, and slowly she concentrated on bending them into opposite swirls. Tumblers from within the knob itself clunked, and the door jolted forward an inch as it unlocked itself.

Ponyo stood back up, violently shaking her hand to relieve it of the stress of having to use it's least capable finger. Really, what was a ring finger good for? Oh, yeah…rings.

She gripped the door knob with one hand, feeling the cold, bumpy metal, and pulled it back halfway. She stuck her head out slightly and looked both ways.

A dark hallway, lighted every few feet by a torch similar to the one in Ponyo's room, stretched both ways. The hallway curved on both sides, limiting visibility to only about forty feet either way, and with all that flickering, it would be especially difficult to make out anything (or anyone) approaching.

Ponyo didn't mind that in the least bit, it was only a question of right or left. Ponyo looked down both ends again, 'I guess I'll take the right way'.

She crept out of the room and closed the door behind her before continuing down the right side of the hallway. Her nose crinkled at the wet earthy smell of the area mixed with the scent of burning fuel from the torches, the whole place seemed smaller with the dank smell of it. More…closed in.

The hallways were small enough for Ponyo to trail her hands on both walls if she wanted to, but she didn't touch the walls and walked down the hallway in the middle. No use being sneaky and sticking close to the walls anyway, she knew that her hosts would be expecting her, it was just a matter of where and when.

There were doors between every other torch on both sides of the hallway, rotating on the walls where there was one door there would be a wall on the opposite side. Ponyo's guess was as good as random as to which door would be the correct one…unless she used a new jutsu.

She had figured out most of the language, at least enough of it to spell the word 'Seek' with handsigns. The problem was whether it was worth it to try it or not, for she had never used it before and it could draw an incredible amount of chakra from her. Those who lived here would surely make sure that she was retrieved, if they kept her alive this long…but would it be worth it to try to get the upper hand and find them first?

Ponyo weighed the risks.

'My only reason for using the jutsu is because of uncertainty of my 'caretakers', but the real uncertainty is the method to relieving the first. If I used it and it only drew a minimal amount of chakra I would still be deprived of chakra that I might need to use upon meeting them, and if a great amount of chakra was drawn out it would wear me down and make me next to useless as far as defense goes. But if I am able to discover their location first I will have the upper hand and be better able to defend myself as I will know their positions before they know mine…assuming that they aren't tracking me already.'

Ponyo frowned, it would probably be best to not use her new jutsu at this time, but that ment giving in totally to the will of whoever was the owner of this place as she did not know where she was or where anyone else was and she was pretty much just roaming around until something happened.

If she was escaping she could look for an exit, but she needed to find Kisame's boss, or at least find Kisame. Her destination was not quite as easy as finding an exit.

Ponyo paused by one of the doors to her right, the knob was not twisted or odd looking. 'Minds well start somewhere...'

She grabbed it and turned the smooth handle between her tensed fingers, the door opened with little resistance as it clicked open and a rank, sour smell spewed out from behind it. Ponyo discustedly dug her lower face into her arm to avoid breathing it in as she peered inside to see a room filled with rotting old bookcases and a ratty futon in the left corner of a small room. Ponyo instantly spied something on the futon and had to blink twice before she realized that the dark mass on top of it was not a shadow… but a skeleton. It's mouth gapped open and a hand clawed at it's chest as the other reached up and leaned against the wall, both of the legs and collapsed and lay knee-to-knee on the futon.

Ponyo slowly drew back out of the room, her eyes darting around as she thought…was it possible that people were just forgotten in their rooms? Was bringing her here really no big deal? Were they really expecting her? Was this skeleton forgotten in their room like she would have been if she was not an able ninja?

Ponyo stepped back to close the door, but as she did so she hit her back against the wall.

Ponyo froze. The walls hadn't been this close together before.

"Hehehe… now, how did you get out?"


	3. Meeting

Ponyo's back stiffened automatically in reflex, the unnerving situation set her senses on high and the damp earthy smell of the area mixed with the smells of the rotting room, turning it into an unkindly intense odor. She fought the urge to sneeze, "…Master Kisame…it is always an honor to stand in your presence…."

He said nothing.

Ponyo shut the door, not being able to stand the smell anymore, disregarding the fact that it might help is she stood perfectly still at the moment. It clicked shut easily.

"You wonder how I got out of my room then…? " Ponyo felt uncomfortable and stiff being this close to a mountain of black fabric covering a rock hard, incredibly lethal body.

She turned around to face him so that at least he wouldn't be in her blind spot, again disregarding the instinct to stand still, though she did so without looking at his blue-grey face.

She bowed slightly as she turned, so that her eyes met with a red cloud shape on his cloak, "It was the torch hanging on the wall, Sir. I saw no vents in the room and by the hardened mud on my face and stiffness of my body position I must have been there a long time and with no way for air to come in, and a torch burning up the air in the chamber, I would have suffocated. Not only had I not suffocated, but the torch flickered as if a breeze was moving it."

Ponyo traced the outline of the cloud with her eyes, wondering who in the world had come up with the design, "I knew it wasn't Genjutsu because the illusion would have prevented the flame from moving around, well, maybe it wouldn't have prevented it with an unskilled shinobi creating the Genjutsu but I knew that that wasn't the case here. I mean I highly doubt you'd work in so incompetent a group…."

"I used a Ninjutsu release and sure enough it worked to reveal a door through which air could circulate in. The door knob was easy to unlock, it's absurd design is very distinctive and any one with an advanced knowledge of chakra lock-picking could have opened the door." Ponyo's eyes flickered a bit to the top right of the cloud shape as she thought, 'But in assuming that your group was very powerful I had to use my ring finger to generate the correct amount of equal chakra pressure to unlock it… and that made it incredibly annoying, Sir…because my ring finger hurts now.'

"Heh." Was the reply from above her.

As Ponyo had been speaking her senses had dimmed back down to normal, but at the sound of Kisame they jolted back full-force.

For the first time she got a whiff of the monster man. She was surprised to find that he did not, in fact, smell as fishy as he looked. He did smell of salt though, Ponyo assumed it to be ocean salt for it had a faint (maybe even imaginary) hint of seaweed to it… but it was hard to tell with the damp smells all around. His overall scent was difficult to determine because of their location, but the smells she was sure of that lingered around him were an old almost dusty smell, the hint of salt, and the smell a blanket might have if washed recently but without any smelly soap of any sort. As if one had dipped him in a bath tub, flicked a few grains of salt at him, and hung him up to dry inside the house and forgot about him for two weeks.

Not unpleasant, but Ponyo had expected something more… seafood-like. You know, given his appearance.

"I was actually hoping that we might run into each other," Ponyo spoke after a pause, "I would very much like to speak with your boss as soon as possible, but unfortunately, I do not know where I am going."

Silence from above.

Ponyo tore her thoughts away from the bloody cloud, 'I know that I'm being a little informal, but I had expected him to be a bit more talkative then this… *sigh* the sooner I speak to his boss, the sooner I can become his apprentice, and the sooner I can do what I wanted to do all along which is to enhance the-'

"Follow me." Kisame interrupted her thoughts.

No sooner had she blinked then Kisame's dark cloak, with the odd repitious cloud pattern, had disappeared from frontal view and only a flick of it could be seen out of the corner of her one eye. Ponyo turned her head and watched him start walking down the flickering hallway, a large black hole crowding up most of the space. '…a guy that big actually snuck up behind me just now? How'd the two of us even fit in the same space? Wasn't a torch behind him then…? Is he fireproof?'

Ponyo then remembered that though he was tall (about 6'4", but with his spiked blue hair he was more like 7'), the wind from the storm had shown her just how lean he actually was. His cloak just puffed him up more, but he really wasn't fat or of huge muscular build or anything. 'He also is skilled in the art of the Hidden Mist Jutsu, a Jutsu that is all about stealth and the art of remaining unseen. Sightlessness, soundlessness, and formlessness… I'm glad that Zabuza taught that to me, knowing as much as I can about Kisame's secret village techniques will be sure to help me better understand him.'

Ponyo hurried to catch up with Kisame, who was starting to fade from view.

They continued on the way that Ponyo had been traveling, their footsteps hardly making more than a scraping sound every now and then on the damp cement. Ponyo kept her arms to her sides, occasionally stretching out her ring finger now and again, she didn't like how the chakra left a tingling sensation in it. She imagined that that didn't happen to every ninja. It had only started happening to her after she had begun making the Handsign Alphabet and trying out many different forms of hand signs.

She imagined that her 'Chakra Veins' had either become damaged by this, or enlarged. It was possible that they simply retained bits of chakra for a longer amount of time then she needed, like the chakra became trapped. 'As long as the body part expelling the chakra doesn't keep drawing more out of me, or get stuck in the Chakra Veins when applied, the only thing that it does is tingle unpleasantly. Though the chakra might be damaging tissue, like it leaks out of the damaged Veins and destroys tissue until it disappears. Maybe I'll be able to find a medic here who'll know…?'

As they walked Ponyo felt a chill nipping at her. It was cool and damp down here, despite all of the torches (which only gave the place a slightly fuel-like smell while providing flickering light) and so Ponyo's clothes still were not dry from the storm. They were the kind of damp that may be mistaken for dry, but were unusually cool to the touch. Like when you took clothes out of the dryer too soon.

Ponyo's arms got goosebumps.

'If I become Kisame's apprentice… would I actually have to live here…? He never stays put for long, so I'm sure I'd be able to go with him on his journeys…but he already has a partner and three people traveling might draw attention… with my flat feet it'd be especially hard to travel as much as they do. Miles and miles a day, with little to no rest periods in-between….'

Ponyo inhaled the air through her nose, the smell was increasingly becoming more unpleasant to her though it hadn't changed, she thought back to the Skeleton Room, '…I think I'd be willing to sacrifice a few blisters, I will not be staying here. That's for sure.'

Though she couldn't help wondering what would happen to her. It was true that Kisame probably didn't need someone tagging along when he already had a partner…but why would he agree to her meeting his boss if he thought something couldn't be arranged?

Ponyo watched his dark cloak ahead of her, it appeared to ripple in the torchlight with his steps, 'He had said that his partner goes off and does stuff without him at times, and if they do have to be together for something that only two people should do, then I could always meet them someplace else.'

Ponyo was busy thinking and almost ran into Kisame, who had stopped and was turned to the right, facing a door. Ponyo was able to stop with her nose an inch away from his cloak, her eyes bulged wide, 'oh, oops.'

She quickly stepped back with tensed muscles, noticing that Kisame had been watching her from the corner of his eyes. He had a small smirk on his face, and a single pointed tooth could be seen gleaming in the torch light, "Heh…you may have just made the biggest mistake of your short life."

Ponyo looked at him confused, and as he opened the door she realized that he hadn't ment almost running into him… whatever was behind that door was about to determine the fate of her future.

Kisame opened the door wider and stepped to the side for her, so that she would be the first one in.

Ponyo knew that she should probably be afraid or planning out some defensive jutsus about now, but to be honest, all that she could think about was the hunger pains that just hit her. As she crossed the threshold and walked into the dark room, all she thought about was when she had last eaten.

Kisame followed her inside and shut the door behind them, enveloping them in the blackness of the moist room.

"It is very rude to arrive someplace where one has not yet been invited." A deep voice spoke after a moment.

Ponyo strained her eyes to see in the darkness, to make out where the person who had spoken was. She fixed her eyes on a distant torch hanging down from the ceiling, beneath which a shadow sat on the other side of the room. The torch was very dim, and it took time for her eyes to adjust enough to make out the size of the room.

It was difficult to determine, because every so often dark masses rose from the floor or dropped from the ceiling, but Ponyo ventured a guess that the room was about sixty by sixty feet, though the height could not be determined due to the unidentified masses which hung down.

Ponyo didn't answer, but after a few moments Kisame did for her, "…She wanted to see you now… this is the girl that I told you about."

Ponyo listened to the slight echo in the room, and thought that she could faintly hear water dripping in the distance.

"Hm." The mystery voice resounded. "…We have no need of another member, and many more qualified shinobi are next in line for such consideration…."

Ponyo couldn't see the man, and doubted that he could see her, but she bowed anyway, "Great Sir, it is not membership I seek. I wish only to become Hoshigaki Kisame's apprentice to better my jutsu inventing skills, and of course, your group would have easy access to whatever I invent. If all goes well, I could give this group unlimited amounts of Jutsu off all different sorts." Ponyo stiffened, her stomach gurgled a bit.

"Oh? And how would being Kisame-san's apprentice help with that?" The voice asked, oblivous to her bodily noises.

"…I have searched everywhere and only Hoshigaki Kisame has the chakra capacity needed to test these Jutsu and discover their full power. Also, if I am Hoshigaki Kisame's apprentice, that would mean that I would also be able to learn secret techniques and hand signs to add to my research. Working this closely with your group, I would be able to develop these new jutsu in complete secrecy from the world, giving your group an unlimited amount of Jutsu without anyone finding out that such a thing is possible. Only the members of this group would know how to use what I offer, making this group of yours completely undefeatable and my information invaluable." Ponyo stared at the dark floor, it didn't appear to be made of cement like the rest of the area.

There was a pause in the room, whether the uncomfortable or stunned or contemplative type, Ponyo was unsure of. She remained bowing, with Kisame still behind her and probably looking at her. She had an unpleasant feeling that she was being stared at...or maybe it was still just her hunger.

"…This is interesting to hear indeed…Itachi-san? What do you think about this, afterall, this is your partner."

There was a pause, and then somewhere in the room a deep voice answered, "A group of three traveling shinobi would be most impractical if we wanted to keep a low profile."

Somewhere else in the room another voice spoke up, this time it sounded more like they were speaking from a walkie-talkie, "I think we should give her a chance, if she can do all she says she can. **I don't think that she can do all that, and we can't have Kisame-san wasting all of his energy on little charades.** I think that she's telling the truth, and that she should get a chance."

Another voice spoke up from above, again as if from a walkie-talkie, "Hey, if Kisame-san's fine with it, un. I don't see why not to, un."

A voice spoke up next to the other one, his voice had the same staticness to it, only it sounded more muffled, "I think that they should fullfill their quota before taking on anything else."

"But think about it," A raspy static-filled voice responded from the opposite side of the room where the other voice was, "if she can do it, then half of our group will be able to stop searching for powerful jutsu and we'll have more members available to take on more jobs for money. As well as being able to take on other member's quotas."

"**That's the question, **'if 'she can do it." The man with two voices spoke again.

The mystery voice that first began spoke, "And then there's the question of a group of three traveling shinobi… Itach-san, Kisame-san… would you be opposed to taking a short break of a month in this area to see if she can yield results? If she can do what she says, someone else can take your duties over and Itachi-san will be given a temporary partner for a while. If she cannot do it, then…she has wasted the talents of my members and put us a month behind schedule and will be promptly dealt with…is anyone opposed to this plan?"

Ponyo felt the goosebumps on her arms intensify and spread throughout her whole body, the way that that man had said if she couldn't do it… it was as if whatever punishment she would receive would be worse then death. His voice sounded so evil. 'I already have most of the Alphabet figured out, I just need to learn a few more hand signs and test the Language out. One month would be a too short amount of time if I had anyone but Kisame Hoshigaki, these jutsus would send any regular person to the hospital, seriously hindering

Ponyo glanced around a bit, now able to see that the masses rising from the floor and dropping from the ceiling were stalagmites and stalagtites. This area was like a cave, and somewhere inside of it, there were other people that she hadn't noticed before.

None of them sounded friendly, or good.

Ponyo just now began to wonder, 'What kind of group is Kisame in…? What kind of people am I letting have an unlimited amount of jutsu?'

No one in the cave room spoke up to oppose the plan.

But Ponyo knew who didn't inparticular like it, 'That Itachi guy…he's Kisame's partner. He doesn't want me to be here that's for sure. And that other guy, with the creepy voices… well one of the voices for sure doesn't want me here.'

The mystery voice, who must've been the leader, spoke again, "…Then your trial period begins. In one month we shall all meet back here, and for your sake, little girl, you had better give us incredible results."


End file.
